Azkaban
Azkaban is a fortress on an island in the middle of the North Sea. It serves the magical community of Great Britain as a prison for convicted criminals. Azkaban was built in the 15th century and it has been in use as a detention facility since 1718. Using certain Charms, Azkaban is hidden from the Muggle world, and is Unplottable. As of Eldritch Diggory's visit in the 1730s or 1740s, a graveyard had been established on the island to accommodate those who have died in the prison. Most of the prisoners inside its walls died of despair, having lost the will to live. This is due to the presence of Dementor guards on the island. Dementors drain people of all happiness and leave them with their worst memories. Long-term exposure usually lead to insanity and even death. While other wizarding prisons exist, such as Nurmengard (which was used exclusively to hold its creator Gellert Grindelwald's enemies and eventually himself), Azkaban is the only known fortress to be the "official" holding ground for British wizarding criminals. History The island in the North Sea on which the wizard prison is built has never appeared on any map, wizard or Muggle. It's first known resident, Ekrizdis, practised the worst kinds of Dark magic and constructed a fortress on the island, luring Muggle sailors there to torture and murder them. After his death, the various concealment charms placed on the island faded, and the Ministry of Magic became aware of the mysterious site's existence. Those who entered the deserted fortress to investigate discovered, among other horrors, an infestation of Dementors. The wizarding authorities of the time considered destroying the fortress, but, fearing reprisal by the dark entities or the island itself, decided against such action, and the Ministry allowed the sizeable colony to remain; the island was thus left unmolested and unchecked for many years, perhaps decades, until the International Statute of Secrecy was established. Due to the impracticality of using small, local prisons, which could result in bangs, smells and light shows if inmates escaped, plans for a single, purpose-built wizarding prison on some remote Hebridean island were made at the passing of the International Statute of Secrecy. However, when Damocles Rowle was elected Minister for Magic in 1718, he insisted on using Azkaban instead, seeing the Dementors as a potential asset: putting them to work as guards would save expense, time, and lives. This plan was eventually put into motion and, despite protests, Azkaban remained the prison of the wizarding world until the end of the Second Wizarding War, primarily due to its zero breakout rate. From that point on, the Dementors served the Ministry as the guards of Azkaban, as the arrangement allowed them to feed on the emotions of the prisoners within its walls. Opposition to the use of Azkaban did manifest, however. Somewhere between 1733 and 1747 Minister Eldritch Diggoryvisited Azkaban, and was horrified at the inhumane levels of despair and insanity that the Dementors induced in the prisoners. He formed a committee to find alternative solutions or mitigating measures, the least of which was to remove the Dementors; even this, however, met opposition from those who feared a mainland invasion if the Dementors were deprived of their food source. Diggory died of Dragon Pox while in office, and thus the campaign to find an alternative to Azkaban's Dementors stalled. Reversing his predecessor's position, when Minister Hesphaestus Gore took office, the prison was renovated and reinforced. No serious opposition to the continued use of the prison arose in the next few centuries, and no Minister considered closing the prison until the Minister of Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt began major reforms of the entire Ministry in 1998. Since 1717, using any of the three Unforgivable Curses on another human being has carried the punishment of a life sentence in Azkaban (unless there is sufficient evidence that the caster did so under the influence of the Imperius Curse, or legal exceptions made by the Ministry of Magic as in the case of Aurors in the First Wizarding War). It was during the First Wizarding War that Bartemius Crouch Senior, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement at the time, sentenced many suspects to Azkaban without a trial. While this allowed many Death Eaters to be imprisoned without giving them a chance to escape by manipulating courts, it also resulted in wrongful imprisonment of innocents, such as Sirius Black. Many citizens of the magical community supported this move, due to the terror of Lord Voldemort gripping the nation; it was only when the war ended and peace began to sink in did people saw Crouch's actions were too harsh. It was also during the first war that Alastor Moody, famous Auror, captured many Death Eaters, which resulted in "half the cells in Azkaban are full thanks to him". During the Second Wizarding War, in which the Death Eaters took over the Ministry, the prison also fell into their usage. They released all of their comrades and falsely cleared them, while sentencing many innocent Muggle-borns and other enemies of theirs to Azkaban under sham trials and trumped-up charges. Also, the Dementors were given more areas to reign upon than simply guarding the inmates. Some Muggle-borns did not survive the ordeal in Azkaban, a reason why Dolores Umbridge was given a life sentence after the Death Eaters were defeated. Azkaban earned a reputation as a horrific place, mostly due to the Dementors. Because of these creatures, most prisoners eventually went insane and slowly died under the Dementors' depressive influence, having lost their will to live and even stopped eating. Even those who survived to be released would remain traumatised by their experiences within the prison: Marvolo Gaunt was left heavily weakened during his six-month sentence, which may have been a contributing factor to his early death, while Rubeus Hagridcan remember how miserable he was there even long after his release. Even Sirius Black and Bellatrix Lestrange's physical appearances are tell tale signs of their deterioration within the prison, losing most of their great aristocratic looks. The Dementors' primary concern was their supply of human emotions to feed upon and, disregarding the prisoners' release terms, seemed unhappy to let them go. However, many denizens of the wizarding community remained happy that it was the Dementors who guard the prisoners, believing that they are what keeps these dangerous people inside the remote fortress. On the other hand, there had been many who opposed the idea of keeping Lord Voldemort's most dangerous followers in the hands of such dark creatures, fearing that their loyalty could easily be swayed to Voldemort's side through bargains of which the Ministry could not compete with, perhaps one day handing the prisoners the key to their unjust freedom. Security Before 1998 Azkaban was guarded by Dementors until most of them revolted and joined Lord Voldemort. As a result, Voldemort's Death Eaters escaped together to rejoin their master in both 1996 and 1997. There is most likely an Anti-Apparition jinx on Azkaban; if there were not, wizards and witches could simply Apparate from the prison to the outside world. However, since it is debatable that most witches and wizards need a wand to Apparate, this may be irrelevant, as none of the prisoners maintain possession of their wands. Most of the prisoners would barely have had enough strength to Apparate anyway, as the mere presence of Dementors, particularly in large numbers, inhibits the use of magical powers. Before the Dementors' revolt, the only people ever to escape the prison were Barty Crouch Jr and Sirius Black, in 1982 and 1993, respectively. Barty Crouch Jr was smuggled out by his father, Barty Crouch Snr, and replaced by his dying mother using Polyjuice Potion, while Sirius was able to escape by changing into his Animagus form of a dog. Another mass breakout occurred in 1997 (most likely in the summer) but was covered up by the Ministry for political reasons. There is a graveyard on the island outside the wall of Azkaban where the Dementors buried prisoners who died. However, if the dead prisoner has a relative who is not a criminal, the relative in question has the right to pick up the corpse for a proper burial, as Barty Crouch Snr had the right to pick up the body that was disguised as his son, though he chose not to due to fear of being exposed of committing a jailbreak. Although the prison is in the middle of the ocean with iron walls protecting it, it was unnecessary to keep prisoners inside, as Remus Lupin stated, because the prisoners were already trapped in their own heads due to the intense depression caused by the Dementors. As Sirius indicated, most prisoners went insane after a short while, and some even stopped eating, preferring death to their lives within Azkaban. Visits to the island are heavily restricted, as only respectable Ministry officials were noted to be allowed to visit with any possible relatives. An example is when Barty Crouch Snr and his wife were allowed a deathbed visit their imprisoned son due to the former's high status in the government; they took advantage of this privilege to smuggle Barty Jr out of prison.The Minister for Magic is also allowed to visit the prison, as to check out on certain prisoners on their conditions, as Cornelius Fudge did on Sirius Black. Arthur Weasley visited Azkaban on business once. After 1998 After the end of the Second Wizarding War and Kingsley Shacklebolt's appointment as Minister for Magic in 1998, Dementors were no longer employed as guards of Azkaban. This was likely because they had proven to be untrustworthy, and because the depression and madness their presence caused in prisoners was considered inhumane. Ever since they were removed, Aurors have been guarding the prison, taking turns so that a certain number of Aurors are assigned to stand guard, before leaving to return to fieldwork, with other Aurors taking their place. It is unknown how many surviving Voldemort supporters and Death Eaters were imprisoned in the aftermath. Them aside, any Ministry officials who knowingly and willingly went with Voldemort's ideologies during the time when the Ministry was under his control, mainly the Muggle-Born Registration Commission, were sentenced to Azkaban, the most prominent being Dolores Umbridge, for her crimes against humanity (and, more specifically, Muggle-borns). The new security system has proven effective, as no breakouts have occurred since it was implemented.